Earlier this month, 400 eighth-graders from Old Bridge Township’s two middle schools talked frankly about their differences, their struggles and their dreams in a program aimed at inspiring them to make a positive contribution to their school culture.

A new initiative in the district of 9,100 students, Challenge Day was part of Old Bridge’s effort to combat harassment and bullying.

“It’s not about teaching ‘Don’t bully,’ ” Superintendent David Cittadino said. “It’s about teaching empathy, being kinder and more tolerant of each other.”

Across New Jersey, the number of programs like Challenge Day is skyrocketing, as districts try to improve the social climate for their students, according to a new state report on violence in public schools.

The data suggest these efforts are paying off.

Last year, investigations of harassment, intimidation and bullying dropped 40 percent to 21,934, according to the Department of Education’s Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse in the Schools Report for 2012-13. Confirmed incidents dropped 36 percent, from 12,024 to 7,740.

The decline comes in the second year of separate reporting for bullying, following the passage of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act in 2011. The law, which amends the Public School Safety Law of 1982, allows students to anonymously report bullying incidents, and it requires districts to document and investigate every claim.

The biggest fluctuation is found in the new bullying category, which accounts for more than a third of all incidents. In the first year as a separate category, bullying incidents account for almost half of all offenses.

“When the regs first came out, there was a hypersensitivity to any incident,” Woodbridge Superintendent Robert Zega said. “It got desensitized the second year.”

Any over-reaction was likely well-intentioned, as teachers and principals tried to follow the spirit of the law.

‘Cry wolf’ syndrome

“Part of my concern was the ‘cry wolf’ syndrome,” said Cittadino, who noted his district bullying incidents dropped from 58 in 2011-12 to 22 last year. “If everything is called bullying, my fear was the staff would think maybe it’s not.”

Patricia Wright, executive director of the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association and chairwoman of the state’s Anti-Bullying Task Force, said there was great confusion over the definition of bullying and the difference between bullying and “normal social conflict.”

“There were many more investigations (the first year) and many of them were not affirmed,” she said. “That’s part of learning the new law, and learning how to apply it.”

The second year numbers are probably more accurate, Wright said, as districts “are getting a better understanding (of the law) and implementing it properly.”

“This is something we’ll be looking at closely,” she added, noting that the task force will issue another report next month.

According to the report, more than half of the 8,289 students who committed acts of harassment or bullying were in grades 5 through 8.

One in three occurred in the classroom, 14 percent in the cafeteria and 22 percent at other locations in the school.

Zega says the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

He compared the stats to a police force that makes few arrests. “Does it mean it’s a safe town, or a bad police force?” he asked.

Bullying incidents in his district of 132,000 students dropped from 177 to 96. With 24 schools, he said, that averages four incidents a school. “We followed the letter of the law, and reported every incident, no matter what the degree,” he said. “It could be a simple name-calling in grammar school to the more serious event in high school.”
getting aggressive

In addition to overly cautious reporting in the first year, educators say, this year’s drop is due to a more aggressive approach to prevention. While enforcement is important, research shows changing school culture is the best approach, Cranford anti-bullying coordinator Brian Gilroy said.

“You want kids to report it if they see it, and express disapproval,” he said. “You want the kids who are kind, caring and responsible to be the leaders.”

The state reports districts held 13,718 programs and initiatives last year, up almost 5,000 from the 8,760 reported the previous year. Nine in 10 were targeted to students. Teachers participated in half of them.

“There’s a greater responsibility on the schools, and the educators within those schools, to go beyond the regular scope of the curriculum,” Cittadino said. “We are more focused on the hidden curriculum, character growth, being responsible, treating each other with respect.”

While the programs may result in improvement in the state’s data, educators say they are seeing positive effects firsthand.